Art Showcased at Ned Gallery

This spring, 35 art students showcased their work in the Ned’s art gallery. The collection numbered 55 pieces, five of which were the work of art teacher Libby Lynch. This was USJ’s first time to show at the Ned, but they have done other community shows including those at Art in the Village and The Bank of Jackson.

The show kicked off with a reception where students could greet the family, friends, and teachers who came out to see their work. “It is always exciting for the students to show their work in a professional venue and to allow them to share their work with others,” says Mrs. Lynch.

Book Contest Winners

Congratulations to the following students in Anna McPeake's art classes for recognition at the Re:Book Contest at the Jackson-Madison County Library.

Yuri Isomura: 1st place overall and Honorable Mention for "Entire Use of the Book"

Students Receive Scholastic Art Awards

Every year, the USJ Arts Guild gives away a scholarship to a student, or students, to use at a one-time camp, class or event. The students must complete an application that describes the event and explains what qualifies them for the scholarship and their accomplishments in their area of study. This year, we are pleased to announce our scholarship recipients are Kayla Puzdrakiewicz and Nicholas Ballard.

The two will be attending the Appalachian Craft Center Glass Blowing Workshop in June 2016. Nicholas says, “I’m excited to go to this camp and experience different forms of art.”

This is a four-day workshop that focuses on papermaking and torch and furnace-worked glass. “I can’t wait to learn new skills and expand my portfolio,” says Kayla.

Both students have taken three semesters of art while at the Upper School.

Arts at the U Event Showcases Array of Talent

On Monday evening, February 9, the Upper School was packed with individuals eager to experience art the USJ way at the second annual Arts at the U event. For the first half-hour, guests browsed the foyer outside the Blankenship Theater, which was transformed into an elegant setting by TB Lighting. A variety of visual art created by USJ Middle and Upper School students made up the gallery, representing Art I, Art II, Art III, AP Studio Art, Digital Tools, Sculpture, and Studio Art courses. Displays ranged from paintings and drawings to sculptures to mixed media. Guests were encouraged to vote for their favorite piece of artwork, with proceeds from the vote benefiting Hands-Up! Preschool. This resulted in over $1,200 being donated to the preschool. Guests took the opportunity to bid on items in the new silent auction, which featured handcrafted items, and also enjoyed refreshments while students Annabelle Reese and John Henry Woods provided foyer music.

Upper School art teacher Libby Lynch was pleased with the way the night came together. "What an exciting celebration of the Arts!" says Mrs. Lynch. "It is a treat to see the students’ artwork finished and framed in such a professional setting. The visual art exhibit, complimented by the student performances later in the evening, forged an atmosphere of creative energy that is concrete evidence of the talent that we as USJ teachers are so blessed to work with each and every day."

Those in attendance then moved into the Blankenship Theater for a talent montage. Many students showcased their vocal abilities, singing everything from contemporary songs to show tunes. Other students performed instrumental numbers, danced ballet or tap, and performed dramatic scenes. The montage demonstrated the wide variety of talent found in USJ’s fine arts department.

Theater teacher Erica Davidson was excited to see how the event had grown from the previous year. "To say that 2016’s Arts at the U event was a success is an understatement," says Mrs. Davidson. The second annual Arts at the U was bigger and better this year. Not only were the parents overwhelmed with the evening’s festivities, but the students could not stop raving about how great it was. We intend to make it even greater next year. Thank you to the parents, students, and faculty who worked behind the scenes to make the night such a success."

Members of the USJ Arts Guild voiced their satisfaction as well. "The USJ Arts Guild is thrilled with the outstanding support of the USJ community and friends of USJ who came out to support our second annual Arts at the U," says Suzanne Allison, USJ Arts Guild Vice President. "We are also so fortunate to have a fantastic faculty within our arts program who worked together with their students to make this event happen. We are so proud to have an opportunity like this to showcase USJ’s outstanding fine arts program."

Students Receive Scholastic Art Awards

We had several students submit work to the 2016 Scholastic Art Awards. After four days of judging over 2,600 works, the Gold Key, Silver Key, and Honorable Mention selections have been made! Congratulations to the following USJ students for placing in this prestigious national art competition.

Student Name

Title

Award

Clayton Hughes

Ordinary to Extraordinary

Honorable Mention

Clayton Hughes

Puzzling View Points

Honorable Mention

Harrison Baker

Poisoned

Honorable Mention

Jordan Stewart

Self Portrait

Silver

Hannah Adams

Mini Me

Silver

Rachel Aristorenas

Repurposed White T-Shirt Dress

Silver

Sarah Carraher

Evolution of Tour Transportation

Silver

Sydney Kilburn

Put a Stop to Domestic Violence

Honorable Mention

Kylin Snowden

What Makes Me "Me"

Honorable Mention

Jordan Stewart

Headache

Honorable Mention

Jack Goodwin

Gothic Style Eco-Friendly Designed Home

Gold

TJ Johnson

Tucked Away

Gold

Sarah Frix

If I am Who I am, then This is Me

Honorable Mention

TAEA West TN Regional Student Art Competition

Congratulations to the following students who were accepted into the TAEA West TN Regional Student Art Competition:

Libby Lynch named 2015-16 TAEA NAHS Sponsor of the Year by Tennessee Art Education Association

The Tennessee Art Education Association has chosen Libby Lynch for the 2015-16 TAEA NAHS Sponsor of the Year. Ms. Libby Lynch established the NAHS chapter 1757 at University School of Jackson in Jackson, TN in 1998. The chapter has been active for seventeen consecutive years. During this time, they have taken numerous field trips, most recently to Nashville where they met with Alan LeQuire to talk about his Athena sculpture and made a studio visit before touring the Frist Center. Their chapter has organized several community art events, including school-wide art festivals and citywide art festivals.

Ms. Lynch was honored with this award at the TAEA Fall Professional Development Conference at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, TN, during an Awards Dinner on October 29, 2015. The conference is sponsored in part by the Tennessee Arts Commission.

This award is given to recognize excellence in professional accomplishment and service by a dedicated art educator. Ms. Lynch exemplifies the highly qualified individuals who are in the field of art education today: leaders, teachers, students, scholars, and advocates who give their best to the profession. We are proud to recognize Libby Lynch as our 2015-16 TAEA NAHS Sponsor of the Year.

The Tennessee Art Education Association is a non-profit organization whose mission is to advance quality visual arts education through advocacy, leadership, and professional development and to promote a cohesive professional community. The membership of TAEA includes elementary, middle level and high school art teachers in Tennessee and representatives from Tennessee’s major art museums, arts councils, and major colleges and universities throughout Tennessee.

Briarcrest Regional Art Competition Winners

Congratulations to the following students for their winning entries in the Briarcrest Regional Art Competition

Sarah Carraher
How to Make the World’s Best Paper Plane
3rd place; 11th grade

Sarah Frix
If I am who I am, Then Who am I?
Honorable mention 3; 10th grade

Clayton Hughes
Ordinary to be Extraordinary
4th place; 12th grade

Riley Koerner
Better Days
4th place; 11th grade

3-D Printer Purchased for Art Classes

Middle and Upper School students are learning how to incorporate technological innovations and art through 3-D printing. The Fine Arts Guild at the University School of Jackson purchased a DaVinci XYZ 3-D printer for Anna McPeake’s art classes, and students have been quick to learn how to utilize their new machine.

The printer works through a web-based program called Tinkercad. This is a CAD program that allows students to create and design anything they can think of in an efficient manner. A multitude of shapes are imported to their working planes, and students can reshape, stack or move them where they choose. Once the students have finished their designs, they save them on flash drives. McPeake uploads their projects from the flash drives to the software on her computer in order to print the projects. It takes about three to four hours for the printer to complete the jobs, creating an air of excitement as students check the printing progress of their pieces. The DaVinci XYZ can print multiple projects at once.

The 3-D printer helps teach art students about balance and support. They must first visualize an object and then come up with the best way to achieve their ideas. Students are learning to foresee possible structural issues with their projects and work them out in advance as they grow accustomed to the 3-D printing technology.

USJ is one of the only schools in West Tennessee that has a 3-D printer for their students.

Six students win blue ribbons at Color of Music

Six USJ students won blue ribbons in the Jackson Symphony’s Color of Music contest. They are Elizabeth Sue Barnes, kindergarten, sixth graders Abby Porter and Rachel Hellums, seventh graders Anika Mahajan and Gabrielle Evans, and eighth grader Ansley Hirstein.

Middle School Art Teacher Anna McPeake received an award for having the highest percentage of winning entries in her age group.

The Color of Music is an art competition and educational project for kindergarten through eighth-grade students in the region. Students listen to music and visually interpret what they hear. Entries are judged by the Symphony League.

Art students learn from Parthenon sculptor

Upper School Art Teacher Libby Lynch led a field trip to Nashville to visit the Parthenon and meet the sculptor who created a famous part of the attraction.

Students met renowned sculptor Alan LeQuire, who won the commission to recreate the Athena Parthenos in 1982 — one of the most ambitious public art commissions ever conceived.

The sculpture, which is almost 42 feet tall, is a replica of the statue that once stood in the Parthenon in Athens, Greece. LeQuire’s work was finished and unveiled in the Nashville Parthenon in 1990.

After discussing the project with the artist, students visited LeQuire’s studio and ate a picnic lunch in Centennial Park. They wrapped up their trip with a visit to the Frist Center for Visual Arts to see the Kandinsky exhibit.

“This was an exciting opportunity for our students to actually meet and visit the studio of a nationally recognized sculptor and hear about the history and mythology related to the Athena from the artist who researched it for his recreation,” Lynch said.

Mid-South Scholastic Art Competition

USJ students submitted outstanding artwork to the Mid-South Scholastic Art Competition this year. Twenty-one winning entries were recgnized, including one Gold Key, four Silver Keys, and 16 Honorable Mentions.

Congratulations also to Middle School students Olivia Clarke, Patrick Evans, and Felix Nnaji.

Samantha and Patrick won first-place awards in their categories, and Olivia earned an honorable mention​. Deborah Lee also won Best Video, "Zero is Not a Size."

First Place in Regional Level of Congressional Art Competition

Congratulations to Maddie Studtmann who won first place in the regional level of the Congressional Art Competition. Her work will be displayed in Washington, D.C.

2014 Congressional Art Competition

The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners in the 2014 Congressional Art Competition are USJ students! First place is Maddie Studtman for “Arghh!”, second place is Jacob Denbrock for “Mechanic,” and third place is “Skeleton” by Isabella Edwards.

Students recognized for artwork

USJ students received art awards at the Jackson Symphony League’s Color of Music ceremony on April 12.

Blue Ribbon winners were seventh graders Allie Crowley and Shereen Haji, and eighth-grader Darielle Prewitt. All are in Anna McPeake’s art class. Allie’s piece is called “Dance,” Shereen’s is “A Musical Beauty,” and Darielle’s is “Colors of Wind.”

First-grader Mia Webb in Darlene Tanner’s class won an honorable mention. Her artwork is called “The Magic of Art.”

Each student won a Color of Music T-shirt and a ticket to the Jackson Symphony’s Masterworks Concert, Joy in Unity.

USJ was one of 21 schools from Madison, Crockett, Haywood, Gibson and Weakly Counties that participated. Students submitted more than 7,000 entries, and 313 were chosen as finalists. Judges awarded 45 Blue Ribbons and eight Honorable Mentions. All finalists’ artwork can be viewed online at aeneas.com.

Middle School Spring Art Show

Middle School students will show their artwork in the foyer of the gymnasium and Blankenship Theatre during the end-of-the-year awards ceremony on May 14.

“It’s nice for them to be able to show off the hard work they’ve done, and this should allow everyone to see it,” said Middle School Art Teacher Anna McPeake.

Each Middle School student has been encouraged to participate in the Middle School’s annual art show.

McPeake expects eighth graders to contribute 70-80 pieces and sixth and seventh graders to contribute up to 150 pieces.

“We will be surrounded by student artwork. I think everyone will be impressed by how much talent our Middle School students have.”

Mid-South Scholastic Art Awards

Congratulations to the following students who placed in the Mid-South Scholastic Art Competition:

Lauren Randolph, grade 12, won a Silver Key for her drawing, “Dad's Old Combat Boot.”

Sarah Carraher, grade 9, won an Honorable Mention for her sculpture, “Heal.”

As an Affiliate of the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers, the Mid-South Scholastic Art Awards honors exemplary art by students in seventh through 12th grades, recognizing their outstanding achievements in a competitive annual exhibition and providing cash prizes and scholarship opportunities.

West Tennessee Regional Student Art Competition

Four students from USJ won awards at the West Tennessee Regional Student Art Competition.

Rebecca Cloar won first place in the sculpture category and received an honorable mention in the drawing category. Sarah Carraher won third place in mixed media, Madeline Koester was third place in sculpture, and Shereen Haji received an honorable mention in mixed media.

The statewide, juried art competition received 361 entries, and USJ’s Middle and Upper School students created 19 of the 159 accepted entries. Congratulations to the following students who also had work accepted into the competition: Harrison Baker, Mattias Chalikias, Jacob Denbrock, Isabella Edwards, Sarah Frix, Sheffiga Rose, Hope Smith, Jordan Stewart, Samantha Sullivan, Zander Threet and Alannah Yellen.

Libby Lynch to Attend 2014 Tennessee Arts Academy

USJ Upper School Art Instructor Libby Lynch was selected as a facilitator for the 2014 Tennessee Arts Academy next summer in Nashville.

Libby will concentrate on the upper, middle, and secondary visual art area. She has been involved with the academy — as a participant or facilitator — for numerous years. Last year she served as coordinator for the Best of the Best Student Art Exhibit, which was part of the event.

A program of the Tennessee Department of Education, the Tennessee Arts Academy has been held annually since 1987 on the campus of Belmont University. The academy, which will be July 13-18, trains more than 275 K-12 teachers and administrators, who impact more than 125,000 students in classrooms across the state.

Highlights of the academy include live performances, daily speeches by well-known artists and educators, and multiple art exhibitions.

Congressional Art Competition 2013

Congratulations to our visual art students who won awards in the Congressional Art Competition 2013. Andrea Arreaza won a first-place award, Todd Moon won second place, Sarah Mantooth won third, and Mattie Boyd won honorable mention.

"Connections" Juried Teacher Competition

Upper School Fine Arts Teacher Libby Lynch has had two pieces accepted into the Tennessee Art Education Association's "Connections" Juried Teacher Competition. “My Creative Muse,” a female bust, won an honorable mention in this show. The pieces will be on display during the month of July at Belmont University in Nashville.

﻿USJ excels at Mid-South Art Competition

USJ students earned top honors at the prestigious Mid-South Art Competition — a juried exhibition with 1,734 individual works of art and 122 portfolios.

Emily Mitchell received a Gold Key and the American Visions Award, which came with a special cash prize. Kim Ballard won a Gold Key, a Silver Key, and an honorable mention.

2012 Congressional Art Contest

Grant Whitsitt placed first in Madison County for Congressional Art Contest, and Katie Robertson received an honorable mention. Grant's entry, at left, will now compete at the Regional Level.

Slideshows

USJ Excels at 2012-2013 Mid-South Art Competition

USJ students earned top honors at the prestigious Mid-South Art Competition – a juried exhibition with 1,734 individual works of art and 122 portfolios. Judges awarded 84 gold key, 122 silver keys, and 220 honorable mentions, from which USJ received two gold keys, four silver keys and six honorable mentions.
Emily Mitchell received a gold key and the American Visions Award, which came with a special cash prize. Kim Ballad won USJ’s other gold key, as well as a silver key and an honorable mention.
Other silver key winners include Callie Cantrell, Sarah Mantooth, and Hannah Woodward. Selena Bright, Todd Moon, Dana Viveros, Riley Koerner, and Alannah Yellen all won honorable mentions.
The gold and silver key winners will have their work displayed at the Memphis Brooks Museum from Jan. 26 to Feb. 17. The awards ceremony will be Feb. 2.

Students Recognized in 2012-2013 Regional Art Competition

Several students from USJ were recognized at the 5th Annual West Tennessee Regional Student Art Exhibition. A Jan. 27 awards reception is scheduled for the juried competition from 2 to 4 p.m. at the West Tennessee Regional Art Center in Humboldt.
Congratulations to Lauren Randolph, Katie Robertson, Samantha Sullivan, Jacob Denbrock, Hannah Woodward, Austin Wilms, and Catherine Adkins, whose work was accepted into the competition. Additionally, Cameron Briley won a 9th grade honorable mention, Mattie Boyd had two pieces accepted and won an honorable mention in sculpture, and Alan Wilms won 2nd place for photography.
For more information about the competition, visit http://wtrac.tn.org.

2011-2012 Student Art Work

This slideshow contains samples of student art work throughout the 2011-2012 school year. USJ art students have the opportunity to work with a variety of materials.